


Stay

by ScoutLover



Category: Leverage
Genre: Dark Past, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-12
Updated: 2013-06-12
Packaged: 2017-12-14 17:59:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/839747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScoutLover/pseuds/ScoutLover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the <a href="http://leverageland.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://leverageland.livejournal.com/"></a><b>leverageland</b>  Challenge 9: to write a Leverage-inspired story that interprets the prompt, “stay,” and to do it in no more than 750 words.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [](http://leverageland.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://leverageland.livejournal.com/)**leverageland**   Challenge 9: to write a Leverage-inspired story that interprets the prompt, “stay,” and to do it in no more than 750 words.

He stood in the shadows outside McRory’s, staring in through the window at his teammates. And trying not to feel the deep, dull ache in his chest.

He’d fucked it all up.

Again.

Thoughts of Aimee, of Kaye Lynn, drifted through his mind, taunting him with a mocking litany of could-have-beens and should-have-beens. So many times he’d had a chance at a life, peace, _redemption_ , and every single time he’d blown it.

And now he’d done it again.

_Some roads, once you start goin’ down ’em, you can’t turn back._

Words he’d spoken to Kaye Lynn, but that held true, maybe even truer, now. Hell, maybe for men like him, there just _wasn’t_ any way back. God knew _he_ couldn’t find it.

And now here he stood, on the outside looking in, separated from them by a chasm of his own digging.

_We’ve been chasing Moreau for six months, and you didn’t tell us!_

The accusation, the shock, in Nate’s voice still stung deeply, and he flinched and bowed his head. They’d trusted him, they’d … believed in him, believed in what (they thought) he’d become.

_You’re not that man any more._

Except that he was, and always would be.

_Some roads, once you start goin’ down ’em, you can’t turn back._

_And I’m about a hundred miles down that road._

A hundred miles, a hundred lifetimes, and drenched in more blood than he could ever wash away. They knew _that_ now, too. Knew exactly what he was.

And it had changed everything.

Hardison wouldn’t, _couldn’t_ , look at him. Parker _did_ look at him, but as if he were something she’d never seen before and didn’t understand. Nate watched him as if waiting for more bombs to drop, and Sophie–

Hell, every time _she_ looked at him, with such concern and sorrow, he felt another crack in himself opening up.

He’d had it all, and he’d thrown it away. Because of Damian Moreau, the architect of so much of his destruction. Only now _they_ , and what he’d found with them, were among the wreckage.

And he couldn’t take it any more. He had too much blood on his hands already, too many sins on whatever passed for his soul. He wouldn’t add them to the carnage.

They were his last chance, everything he’d thought he’d never have … and he had to leave. Get out now before the bloody cesspool that was his past claimed them as well. He knew better than to think Moreau was the only shadow lurking out there, and he’d never survive the guilt if anything happened to them because of him.

It was time to go. Again.

Maybe one day they’d forgive him. If not, at least they’d be alive to hate him.

He lifted his head, took one last look through the window, then steeled himself and turned away, stepping further into the darkness–

And right into Sophie.

How she’d gotten so close without his knowing was a mystery, and more than a little unnerving, evidence that he was in worse shape than he’d thought. He opened his mouth to speak, to utter still more words of deception and betrayal–

When she laid soft, manicured fingers over his lips to silence him, and smiled sadly.

“Leaving isn’t the answer,” she said, her deep, dark gaze stealing his and refusing to give it up. Ever the thief. “Believe me, I know. You made a mistake, yes, but they’ll get over it in time. What they won’t get over, though,” she shifted her hand to cup his whiskered cheek, “is losing you. Please don’t do that to them.”

He swallowed hard and shook his head. “I don’t … know how to fix this. I–”

“We’ll work on that together, all of us. Just as we have everything else.” She reached down and took his hand in hers. “But for now, come inside. You’ve spent enough time in the darkness, don’t you think?”

He looked at her for long moments, feeling her hand so warm and sure in his, then turned his gaze back to the window, and to the light, the people, the _family_ , waiting within.

Sophie squeezed his hand and started forward, and he let himself go with her.

Maybe, just this once, he could stay.

_The End_


End file.
